Sundays are for...

sleeping in, drinking large cups of coffee, watching the kitty traffic parade through the back yard, eating omelets and cheese scones, world cup footie reruns, and dreaming of new patterns to knit.

Last night we hauled ourselves over to the wunderbar which was a treat in itself (be sure to check out the 360 images of both inside and out on their site). We we were there to watch the band of this guy that I work with, insurgents. They opened for this band from Auckland the situations. Although turnout for the show wasn't great and the sets were short, both of us enjoyed the music and being out and about. On the downside it made me feel really old. All the kids in insurgents are 18 and they and all their friends dress like they are living in the 80s, especially the girls!!! They all had so much spunk and uncontained energy, it was impressive and entertaining. But back to the 80s dress code, why Why WHY??? Is it this bad back in the states? Did all those awful styles really make it back? I guess none of them experienced it for the first time so it is new and novel for them. All the same I pray it is short-lived (because it is making me feel old and crabby lol).

itch to knit

Although I have switched hemispheres and therefore reversed all the seasons, the season for the itch to knit still coincides with autumn in the northern hemisphere (which isn't very convenient if you think about it). But thanks to maepress I have found this fab pattern that I have an itch to knit. Tomorrow I am going to the lys and picking up some skeins of yarn and maybe some longer circular needles (if I can find them).

Over the weekend blue and I were working on the banks peninsula and even though it is spring here, we still needed the wood stove at the lodge. I took advantage of the ambiance and worked a few rows on a washcloth that has been on the needles for an embarrassingly long time.


This was sunrise on sunday morning, the beautiful morning sky resulted in nasty cold, rainy, foggy weather for the rest of the day (that we had to work in). Thankfully there were some beautiful moments that redeemed it!

bowl o' plenty

fruits, originally uploaded by mmm gin.

Our local produce store (The Funky Pumpkin) has been supplying us with delicious and interesting new fruits and vegetables. In this bowl there were a few new items for us: Longans (the little brown guys) they had this white opaque fruit with a cherry pit like seed under the easy to peel skin, tamarillos (the red oblongs ones) these are fun to squish up, bite the end off and suck out the inside (apparently that is how the kids 'round here eat them), pluots (the ones that look like a combo between a plum and apricot), and purple passion fruit (the purple one) yum. We have also had a few persimmons (the orange guy in the back) and enjoyed the golden kiwis common here (the skin is a little easier to eat :)

mmmmmm fruit

I picked this can of salmon out because of the sweet label. Blue said the label is the very reason he did not pick it out. But I reckon it must be delicious, it's from Canadia.

hike hike hike hike hike hike hike

or if you are speaking kiwi: tramp tramp tramp tramp tramp tramp tramp. Yeah, they call hiking or backpacking tramping here. According to wikipedia, tramping involves camping, but from what I can tell from talking to kiwis, a hearty day hike can also be considered a tramp.

Anyhoo, there has been a lot of tramping going on here the last few weekends. 2 weeks ago we headed north to Hanmer Springs were we did a long day hike to the top of mt isobel and back (the above pic is me at the top). It wasn't as cold as the larger mountains in the background make it appear. There was some snow (as seen in the foreground) but the breeze was only slight and it was sunny and nice. After the long hours on the trail we headed to the town's hot springs to relax for a few hours before driving back to Christchurch. We decided that all long hikes should end in a few relaxing hours of thermal pools, it helped ease the soreness more than expected. sooooo wonderful...

September???

Holy Wow, it is September! Where did June, July, and August go??? Anyone? Well at least that means that spring is here/just around the corner, unfortunately that means that autumn is just around the corner up there. Eventually I may get used to this complete switch of seasons, but for now it still seems like it should be hot, humid summer weather.
The past few days have brought these wonderful northwesterly winds that are all warm and springlike. The sun has been shining and the lambs frolicking. Tomorrow blue and I are headed out on the (banks) peninsula to do some field work. It should be a great change of pace from being stuck behind an espresso machine all day (or behind a computer)!

*no rain no rain no rain*
*big sunshine big sunshine*
*no rain*